Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, 22 December 2020 – The City Council approved the adoption of the Air and Climate Plan with 26 votes in favor and 8 against. The collection of observations will begin in the next few weeks, then the Plan will return to the Council for final approval with citizens' contributions.

The PAC is the tool that will allow the city to achieve the objectives set by the European Union on carbon neutrality, i.e. the path towards a CO2-free city. It is a plan divided into 49 concrete transformation actions and Milan is the first Italian municipality to equip itself with this programmatic tool, defined in medium and long-term time phases with precise deadlines of 2025, 2030 and 2050.

The Plan takes into account a process started some time ago and still underway to respond to the climate emergency and whose effects are already evident; but it also responds to the need for ever greater attention to citizens' health, as demonstrated by the current pandemic crisis.

The Plan is divided into five areas - health, connection and accessibility, energy, temperature and awareness - and for each area actions are planned aimed at a greater quality of life in the city, the reduction of polluting emissions, the achievement of carbon neutrality, to the containment of global warming, to the circular economy.

Among the main objectives is the halving of vehicular traffic (referring only to cars) thanks to the creation - on the public transport front - of 55% more kilometers of subway and light rail lines than today by 2030 (i.e. going from the current 127 kilometers to 195 kilometres) and another 60 kilometers in the following 15 years; as regards alternative and sustainable mobility, strengthening of cycling through new routes (100 kilometers under construction in 12 months between 2020 and 2021) and diffusion of 30 zones (more than doubled in a year); on the public spaces front, a parking plan is planned for residents in vertical structures below or above ground and the strengthening of interchange parking lots, so as to return large portions of the road to the community with greater safety, liveability, distance from sources of pollution and greenery; finally, a plan for goods logistics, supply and travel in the city.

The objective is set to reach 75% by 2028 with regards to the recycled portion of waste (today Milan is at 62%, among the five best large cities in the world), the production of heat for heating on the remaining portion and transparency of the supply chain along the lines of the tender for the waste service.

Among the actions there is also a plan against food waste which continues the Food policy actions already started.

On the topic of energy efficiency of buildings, the objectives start from municipal public housing - with a 50% reduction in fuel consumption and a maintenance plan that reduces expenses for tenants - and from school buildings. Creation of green roofs, which will go from the current one thousand square meters to 10 thousand on municipal buildings. And as regards private construction, the PAC provides fair incentives for economically fragile sections of the population in order to encourage the replacement of boilers and the insulation of buildings.

Relevant policy objectives also regarding the increase in the use of energy from renewable sources: installation of new solar panels for 60 thousand square meters and shared actions between the Municipality and A2a for the acceleration of the production of clean energy, towards carbon neutrality.

Among the objectives of the Plan is also urban forestry to go from 480.000 to 700.000 trees with 220.000 new trees by 2030.

The PAC will be published on the Municipality's website in the coming weeks and it will be possible to submit comments for 45 days. It will subsequently return to the council chamber for final approval.